installed today. here's my take:

Minus:
1. ridiculous name.
2. tuned for low to midrange. doesn't subjectively feel any stronger up top. sounds almost the same as stock as you exceed 5000 rpm.

Plus:
1. ridiculous name
2. retains stock placement of the intake air temp sensor and the breather tube
3. under load, sounds so, so, so much better.
4. transient throttle response is excellent. part throttle feel significantly better than stock. enough to make me think that the fit wasn't drive-by-wire anymore. which, alone, is worth the money.


OK, would I buy it again? At this point, definitely. Since I have the automatic, as much as I wish the SSI had more >5000rpm power, it appears that there is greater average power available at the expected operating range of rpm because of how long legged the AT's gears are. This is a road race car when driven by me, and at track speeds, I only really have 3rd and 4th available. 3rd tops out somewhere at 80, and 4th never tops out and pretty much stays below 5000rpm before having to get on the brakes which for the most part will keep the motor operating where the SSI is most productive. And since the car is 95% commuter for the mrs., the SSI is at its best when just getting from point to point.

I doubt there will be a gain in fuel economy, but who knows. That's the next test.

My recommendation to H-Fit - design another bracket to support the overall unit. It seems like the coupler hose bears more weight than the bracket and I just always want to check out that the intake hasn't slipped off of the throttle body.

 

thakns for the review man, I agree with all you said. But i think this thread goes in the SSI discussion thread.

 

Any pics of this intake installed?

 

I was checking out their site, and I don't understand the dyno charts on the intake...it looks as though they rev the motor to 10k RPM? Maybe I'm misreading or maybe I got ripped of on my Fit, either way, something is wrong.
http://www.h-fit.com/SSI-Torque.jpg

 

they were having a problem with their tachometer signal. i believe it was logged as power at a particular speed.

 

Bingo! Really noticeable difference isn't it? Same thing when I put my Power Box on, only I have more oomph in the higher range at a slight loss in low end torque because it's more tuned for the track. I'm pointing this out though b/c so many people rail on the DBW system as being such a dog, when really the main contributors are the OEM intake and exhaust (DBW is far from perfect, but swap the intake/exhaust and like you said, it's really pretty tolerable).

 

one thing i dont like about DBW is that delayed feeling it gives u. making it hard to rev maych and all. my only prob with this intake is the price...but im sure it works well and sounds great.

 

i percieve that the DBW on this car seems to have a bit of an exponential response to it. it feels like the motor is working harder than i want it to in the first half of pedal travel. i'm still trying to put to words why i think the better transient response would somehow make me think that it wasn't DBW anymore since they seem so unrelated. guess the only way to figure that out is to turn more dinosaurs into noise.

btw, my wife loves this intake. she doesn't like how loud the exhaust is on my other car, but she loves the on-demand nature of the sound of the intake. she also swears that the car feels faster, i dont really think so, but that's the nature of being happy with a purchase. i think it responds to transient inputs better, she thinks its just outright stronger. oh well, thats $240 i'm glad to part with.

 

Hi kennef

Thanks for the review. We tried to design an intake that would perform in the real world rpms of daily driving. The most notable gains we found in testing was during moderate to high speed throttle transitions. eg. when you would mash the gas to pass someone on the freeway. Being that the SSI is a chamber in design, it allows a large reserve of air to be available to the engine when immediately necessary.

FCBrandon,
I looked at the dyno chart on our website and you are correct! there is something funny going on. I noticed that the X axis on that graph is in time! It should be in RPM. We will post the graphs with the correct scale.
HP and torque curves are the same.

Once again, Thanks for the review on our intake!

H-FIT Team
H-Fit.com....Performance Parts for your Honda Fit!

 

james- is there a reason why you guys are using such thin material on
the chamber housing? i thought it would crack when i put the K&N
filter on. and the cone looks like it only goes on about half way.

not that it loosened up or anything...

also, it would be more reassuring if you had picts of how far the
cone is suppose to go on. the pict you have in your instructions is
on an angle and can't see how far the filter cone sleeve is suppose
to go on.

 

not to get off subject but, aren't you guys working on a cat-back? I've actually been waiting to buy mine to see what the guys at H-Fit might come up with.

 

Hi kenchan,

the filter has a ridge inside that the SSI snout will stop at. There will be a section of the snout that the filter does not cover. I would say an inch or so. This is normal.

The material thickness was chosen because it allows us to keep the chamber within our max designed space constraints. The internal volume and shape of the SSI chamber are what makes the SSI perform the way it does. We had to maintain this internal volume to have the SSI perform the way we wanted. The required internal volume did not leave us with too much space extra, so we used the thickest material prior to forming that we could use and still maintain the required spacing.


Thanks again,
H-FIT team
H-Fit.com....Performance Parts for your Honda Fit!

 

james- thanks for the info on the snout. about the housing...that makes sense. every mm counts, it sounds like.

i like it.

 

I have this intake and love it BUT,

Again the WHATS UP WITH THE CAT BACK . We where told along time ago that you had a Exhaust coming out. I have the intake now i need the Exhaust..

 

Any updates on the heat shield???

 

a heat shield sounds cool, though i wonder if the ecu can/will take advantage of the reduced IAT.

 

i was thinking of pairing this intake with the hks axleback and megan bpipe, but i wanna see what H-fit is gonna offer...i want the best paired performance for this intake...if u guys dont make an exhaust im gonna go with hks axleback and megan bpipe...so my question is r u in development for a catback exhaust?

 

On SRI and chamber intakes, the term "heat shield" is meaningless- it will not reduce the IAT. It can only slightly prevent an increase, over temps with a stock intake, in the IAT. Even with the best possible "heat shield", absolutely no cooling will occur. The best that you can expect is to keep some of the hot air blowing through the radiator from going directly into your intake.